Tiny corner of Albania finally bunker-free

In this picture taken on June 28, 2009, a newly-built restaurant operates beside former military bunkers on Golem beach on the Adriatic Sea, 31 miles (50 kilometers) south of the capital Tirana. Officials in Albania say Thursday, July 22, 2009, Cold War-era bunkers are being dragged off a beach and destroyed at a popular coastal resort, with the help of an aging Chinese-built tank. Communist Communist dictator Enver Hoxha ordered the construction of the vast network of thick concrete bunkers that was designed to accommodate the entire armed forces personnel in this former Stalinist enclave to prepare for a potential invasion. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina)
— AP

In this picture taken on June 28, 2009, a newly-built restaurant operates beside former military bunkers on Golem beach on the Adriatic Sea, 31 miles (50 kilometers) south of the capital Tirana. Officials in Albania say Thursday, July 22, 2009, Cold War-era bunkers are being dragged off a beach and destroyed at a popular coastal resort, with the help of an aging Chinese-built tank. Communist Communist dictator Enver Hoxha ordered the construction of the vast network of thick concrete bunkers that was designed to accommodate the entire armed forces personnel in this former Stalinist enclave to prepare for a potential invasion. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina)
/ AP

Today the bunker sits under a three-story hotel and is used as a storeroom and a place to make raki, Albania's potent national drink. Tourists sunbathe on loungers outside.

"This ex-bunker has given me a good living," said Roci. "The bunkers are always good attraction for foreigners."

Maliq Sadushi, a deputy defense minister under Hoxha, defended building the massive fortification system, citing a widespread "fear of imperialism." He noted the bunkers were recently used by Kosovo Albanian paramilitary fighters and refugees and the Albanian army itself during the war in the late 1990s against Serb forces.

When built, the cost of a typical bunker was equivalent to five years of an average Albanian's salary.

"You can't get rid of the history and of the hard labor to build them," Sadushi said.